Learning to fly airplanes -- and aviation is starting to embrace it

Learning to fly airplanes -- and aviation is starting to embrace it is a close look at AI-assisted flight demonstrations. In a Cessna Caravan, a test flight showcases Merlin Labs’ Pilot system, where a pilot is purely a passenger while artificial intelligence handles most piloting tasks and interacts with a simulated air-traffic controller via a female voice. Tim Burns, Merlin’s CTO, explains the roles of AI in the cockpit as a potential remedy for pilot shortages that Boeing expects to require more than 600,000 new pilots over the next two decades. Officials, including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, advocate AI tools to ease workload while emphasizing that human controllers will remain in charge of airspace.